December 14, 2002

Who is Better Fed?

As I sit down to write this column each month, I try and draw on real experiences that I have observed as a veterinarian or hay producer. I recently had the opportunity to review a project on hay and the horse owner. The paper was the effort of a very good University educator. The paper was accurate but what would the horse owner do with it?

I showed it to my son, who is a graduate student at the U of M. He started to explain the paper by developing it around a complex multi-variable algebraic equation.

When you start explaining hay and the horse it does get a little confusing. Grass verses legume, early cut verses late cut, rained on verses on-rained on, small square verses large round and other issues as moisture, mold, smell and location.

I have been working on making this easier for the horse owner for many years. I tell people that when I was practicing, I believe that 75% of what I treated, on an emergency basis, was traced back to a nutritional screw-up. As I work on the perfect horse feed, I can tell you my woods, out back, is full of screw-ups. We do small square bales, large round bales and cubes to meet today's demand. We have done mid-size square bales in the past.

This past week I was at a grocery store watching a young mom buying food for her family. I realized that the nutritional confusion is not limited to hay and the horse. The confusion is good for MD's and DVM's.

For what it is worth, I have decided that the best solution to the problems described above by the University educator is in the form of cubes. I believe that the cubes should be a combination of all the nutrients needed for a healthy horse except the water.

What makes cubes better than what we are using now?

1. Most cubes will come with a nutritional analysis and directions for use.

2. Cubes maintain fiber length in the manufacturing process.

3. Cubes are compressed and do not allow the horse to separate stems, leaves or other nutrients. This keeps the digestive process regular.

4. Cubes are usually hard and allow the horse to spend time chewing and making saliva needed to buffer the stomach and keep the horse from becoming bored.

5. The compression process will reduce the problems of dust. Dust is usually a problem for the respiratory system not the digestive system.

6. Cubes are in a form much better suited to controlling the quantity fed to the horse.

7. Cubes are easier to store and we see significantly less waste.

8. Because cubes are made in large quantities, they are usually more consistent than hay  at an auction.

9. Balanced nutrients make all the nutrients more available to the horse.

10. Balanced nutrients make for a better immune system to fight off disease.

So why don't horse owners feed cubes to their horses? That is the question I have been asking. If my readers can help me out I would appreciate your input either in writing or e-mail. My address is 2379 Quimby Ave. S.W. Cokato, Minnesota 55321 or at idleacres@cmgate.com .

I believe that cubes, to the horse industry, is much like the dry nuggets are to the cat and dog food industry. Cats and dogs do very well nutritionally with a total mixed ration in the form of a nugget with the addition of water. The nuggets are scientifically balance nutritionally. They are dry and less prone to spoilage.

The hog and poultry industries have long used a dry complete feed to keep the animals of their industry healthy and productive. A good and healthy diet certainly over shadows the argument that the same thing is boring.

I seriously would like your input, as would some University researchers, on ideas to improve the feeding and health of the horse industry.

As I think about this article, I have to wonder if our cats, dogs, pigs and chickens are better fed than our kids and horses